From experience, the only that that I liked about learning (or pathetically trying to learn) Vietnamese is that it has a French-like alphabet. That I liked! What I hated about my learning experiece is the sounds you have to make with word pernunciations! My past instructor (who is from the South region of Vietnam) kept complaining that I sounded "too much like a communist" when I speak; or my accent was "too Northern"...Well,whatever! If you can understand what I'm saying, what does it matter?! I'm trying to learn the best I can...well, I was. From my class experience, also, the course was made up of 98% little kids and there were NO adults. I felt like a complete moron, while these kids already know how to speak and write the language... I wish there were adult classes at some community colleges, but unfortunately, there are none in the Los Angeles region... My instructor was extremely rude and discriminating too, treating me like I should have been born knowing it just because of my heritage (I'm French, Chinese, and Vietnamese). However, I still want to know the language because it's good to know many languages when living in a metropolitain city like Los Angeles. I'm just waiting to find an ADULT class with a friendly, more thoughtful instructor. Until then, I'm finishing up on my enjoyable Russian classes and I have no intention of walking into another kid's language class with some teacher who expects people to already know the language before they walk in!